First time buyer

han_nah95_2

I love spreadsheets and have many! haha 
Last night we also re-arranged our savings accounts - at least we know what we have left - although i'm sure most will go once the re-wring and central heating and boiler is put in
@renfirsttimebuy oooh congrats for the 1st June - not long to go xx

mortgage_broker_adelaide

Congrats on the prospect of a new house. Hiring out to professionals (mortgage broker and conveyancer) is a wise decision

renfirsttimebuy

Hiya!!! So I've started my spreadsheet and I'm loving it....

Rooms- item- quality- it's deducting from my saving lol   and also I put website links!!! 

Who knew spreadsheet were so fun! 

I just booked my removal company! It's all now becoming real. Tomorrow I'm packing more. 

How are you all?

@MovingForwards @han_nah95_2

MovingForwards

Spreadsheets are the easiest way to organise your life, the joy of having different tabs for various things!

MobileSaver

MovingForwards said:

Spreadsheets are the easiest way to organise your life, the joy of having different tabs for various things!

However joy can quickly turn to woe once you click the AutoSum button on your latest project idea.

MovingForwards

Guide to completion day:

Well, it's the day you are again walking around with your phone glued to your hand, waiting for it to ring and hear the magic words, your purchase has completed and you can get the keys, congratulations!

If the property you are buying, is one you already live in. That just makes it so much easier, crack open the champagne and enjoy your home.

If the property is one you are moving into, brace yourself for the long haul of moving, unpacking, organisation.

What I would recommend is having a note pad / pen, mobile phone and charger when you get the keys and do an initial walk around.

If you smoke, I highly recommend waiting and not having one yet!

First thing you do is make a note of the gas / electric / water meter numbers and readings, take a photo of them too. You may need to turn the lever on with the gas, stay for a few minutes to see if you can smell a gas leak, then head straight to the kitchen and see if there's any gas smell
(I rented a place where the gas cooker was removed, the gas pipe left and not capped off, by the time I had got up to the flat after turning on the gas, the flat was filled with gas, I ran back down to turn it off, called the emergency gas number, ran back up to open the windows and back down again to wait, that's why no smoking yet!)

In the kitchen, smell for gas leak and if ok turn on any appliances left in the property, see if they work as expected. 

Find where the main water stop cokc (swap the kc to ck, if I post that word it gets symbols instead, which isn't going to help you), see if it's easy to turn just a little bit. Make a note on your pad.

Do a walk around, check everything. Switch on / off lights, open / close windows / doors / cupboards etc. Anything not working as expected, write it on your note pad.

Use your phone and charger to check every socket in your home, occasionally one will fail. If your phone doesn't light up as being on charge, write it on your note pad. Note how many sockets you have in each room and the location of them, they will influence your room layout.

Switch on the heating, make sure the radiators all heat up. Switch on the hot water and check it comes out all hot taps. Have an electric shower? Take the head out its holder and point away from you into the bath / shower tray, turn the shower on, play with the settings and make sure it's warm, hot, hotter and wow that's really hot! Any problems, write it on your pad.

Now, go back into each room, stand in it and do a slow 360° turn, walk around it, touch the walls, look out the windows and feel your shoulders relax, for the first time in months. Make a note of any initial layout ideas, these are ideas and will change when your furniture goes in. The rooms may look different to how you remembered, that's ok and it's normal.

If you have a garden, go have a look at it, it's yours! Where's the daylight in the garden? Is there a sun spot for reading or relaxing in the evenings / weekends? Make a note of anything, especially any initial ideas you want to make. Savour the space and the smile will now begin to hurt your face, you never knew cheeks could hurt until today!

The reason to take notes and check before moving in is you know if anything needs to be looked at / fixed when you move.

If anything has been badly damaged / removed and should have been left as part of the purchase, or things not working / leaking contact your solicitor, usually it's your problem to fix but the property should be as you viewed it and items left as you agreed in the contract.

(Scotland buyer - any leaks, things not working, damage etc costing £400+ contact your solicitor within 5 days)

Small tip, a seller does tend to leave random items:
-- so far I've found a load of garden tools, fire extinguisher, spare wallpaper, spare tiles (great, useful items)
-- pictures, a huge mirror, empty boxes and the bins were full as they were not put out after the property was empty and was for several weeks

Bigger tip! Your cleaning standard may not be the sellers cleaning standard. Be prepared to clean everything!

That's the easy bit done.

The hardest part is updating addresses with each and every company you have involvement with.

Most of the updates can be done online via your account, as long as you can remember everyone; at this point you wish you would have written a list of every company so you could tick them off as they were done, but no, you were too wrapped up with the purchase to even give this bit a moment of thought and you kick yourself, repeatedly!
-- Banks / financial institutions*
-- Pensions*
-- employer / union
-- mobile phone
-- Loyalty schemes
-- PayPal / eBay / Amazon and any other company you buy from
-- friends and family

* These send a letter to your old and new address, saying they've updated your address, this is why it's good to have the old address for a few weeks after getting the keys so you can pick up the letters. It's a physical letter even if registered for online communication.

It may seem like a short list, but when you get stuck in it takes ages, I'm still working my way through it all but prioritised the financial ones.

While all of this is going on you need to register with the suppliers of your home and provide them with meter numbers / readings:
-- gas
-- electric
-- water
-- council tax
-- internet / phone / TV if changing to new supplier

Now you can breathe!

On the day you move out and only when the tenancy ends, if a later date. You contact all the suppliers to your old address to give them closing meter readings (take photos), provide them your new address and wait for the closing bills. If you have a notice period with any supplier, don't forget to give it.

All of this is what I found most stressful about the purchase, that's why I would always recommend trying to time your purchase with having an overlap of your rental. There is the time to go to home, clean etc, back to rental to have removal company do the hard work, back to rental to clean it. It gets very tiring as you want to forget about the rental and move on with your new home / life!

han_nah95_2

renfirsttimebuy said:

How are you all?
@MovingForwards @han_nah95_2

Morning 
So today is exchange and completion day  *fingers crossed*
so nervous, excited and a very muddled brain trying to write lists down ha! 
I hope you're both ok 
Anyway we can all keep in touch once we've all completed? X 

120624

We’ve just sent over our deposit ready for completing tomorrow.

@han_nah95_2 how is your day going? 

han_nah95_2

120624 said:

We’ve just sent over our deposit ready for completing tomorrow.

@han_nah95_2 how is your day going? 

Day is going great! We completed and got the keys at 11:45 this morning  
Ah congrats @1@120624
Let us know how it goes tomorrow - i'll be thinking of you whilst stripping wallpapers 

renfirsttimebuy

Congratulations!!!! @han_nah95_2